Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 208

Daily prompt: what's in a name

This is brought to you by the WordPress guys, topic #83 (does this mean it was day 83 out of 365? Where is time going??): How did you get your name? Who chose it, and why? (I'm guessing they changed the topic, as the post has another name. If I were to answer that question: I don't like talking, so texting is definitely my answer! ).

barbera wine

So here's my name's story. My mum likes female names ending in "ara" (my sister is called Chiara – other options were Sara, Lara and Mara, which I know is male in India, but in Italy all names ending with 'a' are female except Luca and Andrea). My paternal grandmother was called Maria Barbera, so my dad would have loved to give me her name. But my mum said "Either we write it with an 'a', or we pick another name!". She was right, of course. As it's written, it's the name of a wine, and the guy at the wedding office mispronounced it, which really upset my dad, so he of course agreed to spell my name the more common way.

My grandmother was usually called "Barberina" (little Barbera), so for years the elder of her village of origin in Garfagnana called ME Barberina (she died in 1967, I think, I don't remember her at all). Which is not too bad. The bad is "Barbera" (with an accent on the first 'a'), as everywhere else in Italy (and the world?) it's read as barbera (with an accent on the 'e') which is a brand of wine…

So, that's how I ended up being called Barbara. Not on my birth certificate, but I have 4 names, Barbara Maria Elena Adele – Maria because it's the mother of Jesus, Elena the maternal grandmother, Adele the godmother and my father's only sister.

When I was younger I wanted a more princely name, such as Elisabetta or Isabella (Elizabeth and Isabel), but when I became The Warrior Woman (in the 1990s), I started to enjoy being called Barbara. I said I was "barbarian by name and in the facts"! It's a Latin word for "foreign woman", in case you were wondering. I know it's widely spread throughout the world, but it originated in Italy – ancient Rome (is that why I still don't like ancient Romans? I wonder… I probably WAS a foreigner of Celtic origins back then. Maybe my story is the one told by my friend Anna Lowenstein in the Stone City! ).

Usually we shorten it to the first syllabe (Ba') but in the new millennium I'm also known as Barb, tradition started by my American friends and soon picked up by some male Italian friends as well… when they're not calling me "Ba'!" of course, which sounds a lot like "Bah", but whatever… As long as it's not Barbie, like the Barbie doll, because my beloved sister used to tease me with that one, so I won't answer!

Book reviews: Kellan's Dragons

Everybody loves dragons. Even the comments to my Six Sentence Sunday snippets say so – we hope Dragons are the next Zombies. Or something. So what do you do when you find a story of dragons that you absolutely love? You write a review and interview the author! So, here's my review of the book. Thursday you'll hear it all from the author herself!

BOOK REVIEW:

If you like fantasy, and dragons, you're going to love this book. The voice is fresh, witty and funny, and I had to read it in one sitting. Well, two… let's say that once captured by the story, I couldn't put it down until I reached the end. I hope to find more stories like this one soon… and there are more coming apparently, arf! Oh, and remember the fact that I don't like "I" stories but I had found one that I very much enjoyed? Well, that's it. And that I'm not a fan of YA? I forgot about it, this tale was so well written and engrossing, with great humor, that I really look forward to read more!

Find the e-book here at MuseIt up. About the author on the publishing house site (more on Thursday). Because I enjoyed Kellan's dragons so much, I downloaded also Cody and the Elf. Again an excellent read (third person, yay! ), the only thing is… it's too short! I hope Cody and the Elf will be back in further stories… at least to get their revenge!

Happiness is…

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome back Sunday visitors and regular readers. Books of the Immortals – Air is now available as e-book (link includes book trailer), print will be ready later in the month.  Continuing to show the main characters from somebody else's POV, here's how Indira sees Kumar: he saved her and she married him. This is the wedding night.

Indira looked longingly at the canopied bed, it would be much better than a bed of grass in the jungle. And he… she had mixed feelings about him. She couldn't deny her attraction to him, but sometimes he scared her even more than the evil king of Arquon. When he blocked his emotions, she wanted to scream and tear down the wall he put between himself and the world.

She heard footsteps and her heart beat faster. She could already recognize his walk, even if he was usually as silent as a tiger.

For more six sentence goodies, hop off to the official blog here!

Linky Saturday

Another busy week with load of discussions between Amanda Hocking, Barry Eisler, Dean Wesley Smith and Joe Konrath!

So, in order: interview with Amanda and Barry by Ted Weistein.

Dean talks with Barry and Joe.

Another major author (Connie Brockway) goes indie.

What NOT to do when you get a bad review (or how some authors give indie publishing a bad name).

Joe Konrath speaks with Scott Nicholson playing good cop/bad cop AND Smashwords founder Mark Coker. And Joe mentions also writers and depression, so check this story as well… I don't have a Kindle, but I'll see if I can find that book in any other format…

And as mentioned in one of the above conversations: please boycott Dorchester Publishing! They screw their authors. Read all on Brian Keene's post.

Funny stuff: Loralie pointed me to the Gender Genie: I've tried blog posts and fiction, and I still and always write as a woman. Is it because English is NOT my mother tongue? Try it and have fun!

Consider submitting for Stories for Sendai, an anthology for Japan edited by JC Martin and Michelle Davidson Argyle.

Also, if you'd like a single Japanese artist, Barb&Masayo's stories is out on Lulu. Again, all earnings will go to Masayo, or, if I fail to locate her, a Japanese charity.

Which prompts me to give you also the link to the printed version of Air. The Kindle is still brooding on it, so stay tuned (or get it on Smashwords). Which, again, prompts me to reward my faithful blog readers: I have issued a Smashwords coupon for a 50%off from the e-book, valid only this weekend. It expires tomorrow, simply enter the code WC98P on check out.

Reviewers can request free copies at the usual e-mail. I'll spend the weekend trying to find some on the useful list I have here.

print cover (same, but wider!)

It's here!

Squee! Author's happiness equals a new mommy's (I think. I'm not a mum): my baby is here! So let's make this as informal as possible!

Dear friends

Just wanted to let you know that my book, Books of the Immortals – AIR, was published today as multi-format e-book at Smashwords. As you might know, it's a character-oriented adult fantasy novel set in my fictional world of Silvery Earth. I hope you'll take the time to check it out at Smashwords, where you can sample the first 20% of the book for free.

Here is the link to my author book page, where you can sample or purchase the book:

Won't you also take a moment to spread the word? If you know anyone interested in adult fantasy, forward this to him/her! Tweet it, Facebook it, whatever!

Thank you so much for your support!

Your humble author…

Ahem, OK, I'll calm down now. Let me tell more about the whole project. Or better, let me know what you think of this official press release… It's my first, how am I doing?

Press release:

First Novel Of Five: Books Of The Immortals – Air

After two short stories, a novella and some graphic novels, comes the first novel set in the fictional world of Silvery Earth

Roma, Italy – April 2011

Last January Barbara G.Tarn uploaded her first, shorter works on Smashwords. Now the time has come to dig deeper in her fantasy world of Silvery Earth with a novel, the first of five, but also a standalone.

The Books of the Immortals cover a long time span of history of Silvery Earth. The first, Air, speaks of a time when the Magical Races are mostly hiding, and Humans are easy prey of the Ponds of Dark Magic.

Winged beings, water people, shape-shifting dragons and an Immortal mangle and tangle with Humans as they try to find their place in the world and someone to love. Add an adventurer, a sculptor, a winged being, a foreign soldier, a princess and a sorceress… What do they have in common? They're not trying to save the world from evil, they're only struggling to survive and fit in, but destiny has other plans that lead to a final confrontation in this gripping story of bitterness and love, darkness and light.

About the author

Barbara G.Tarn is a writer and artist who produces both prose and graphic novels set in the world of Silvery Earth. She publishes her works, mostly about Silvery Earth, but also other vignettes, such as her weekly "Happiness is…" or comics or art books available in print, under the imprint of Unicorn Productions.

Her Smashword author page is http://www.smashwords.com/profile/vie...

She blogs at http://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com

Where to find Books of the Immortals – AIR:

Smashwords:  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...

Lulu (coming soon): http://stores.lulu.com/barb65.

 

Contact

Barbara G.Tarn

creativebarbwire at gmail dot com

 

Guest post – David Baboulene

Today I'm resting before the big launch (can you see me going all "Ohm!" trying to keep the cool?) and will let somebody else speak. Please take note of these words of wisdom, as I believe there is much truth in this. It's just rebel me that don't want to play by the rules! BUT I do broadly know my genre, and will find my niche, probably online first, and then… we'll see.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome David Baboulene!

Why is Genre Important?

When a writer tells me his story is so different it doesn't fit a genre, he generally looks pretty pleased with himself. Rather than make myself unpopular, I refer him to my conversation with Stewart Ferris – the ex-MD of Summersdale Publishing – who told me the top three reasons why he will reject a book on the basis of its content:

Is the material appropriate for our brand and list?
Does it have a strong title?
Does it have a clear genre?

If the answer is 'no' to any of these, instant rejection is almost inevitable. So why is genre in this list?

Everyone in publishing builds a reputation on the decisions they make. Every publisher will go out of business if they don't publish books that people want to buy. Every editor is only as good as the books she has her name against. Every buyer in the shops will be sacked if they fill precious shelf-space with books that doesn't budge. And the key to selling a book (not writing – selling) is genre.

Since I started looking deeply into what makes stories grip and engage, I've found the roots of just about everything in psychology, and genre is no different. Our brains innately categorise and organise everything. Sales and marketing people know that products MUST match with a mental category to have any chance of making a sale. In Art, Genre is the label we use for this mental categorisation, and we are surprisingly rigid in how we want our lives, firstly, to be categorised, and secondly, for things to sit solidly within category boundaries.

Think about how you choose what to buy in a bookshop. Firstly, you generally know what type of book you want – let's say you like 'Travel' books. You don't know which specific book you want to buy, but you do know where to find the desired type of book, and you head for the Travel Section. There are, say, 100 books in that genre. Then what do you do? You narrow to a sub-genre. City guide? Map? Adventure? No – you want Humour. This will narrow it to say, 10 book, and you begin looking at them individually. You use the title and cover design to pick the ones that fit best (fit what? Your mental categorisation) and that will leave you with perhaps three that suit your personal idea of travel humour. You then read the back of each and if the publisher has their genre messages right, you probably buy all three of them on a '3 for the price of 2' deal (Yes, that's why they do that!). Note carefully that the content of the book – the words the author took years writing – are totally irrelevant. The top level genre messages that the publisher wrapped your words in are what sold it. Not the writing, but the wrapping. This is the job genre does for you – it helps the publisher to find appropriate writers and it helps readers to find material they are likely to appreciate.

A lot of writers get very frustrated by having their work and themselves forced into a pigeon hole. My advice is to embrace genre. Even the best writers only appeal to say 1% of the population, and you find your audience, and target them with appropriate marketing, because they are the ones who are attracted to the genre. So you need to be sure of one thing: Having a clear genre for your image, your writing, your books and publicity is absolutely key to commercial success.

If you would like to see the 106 page PDF of book categories published by the Book Industry Communications Trade Organisation which is used to categorise ALL published books, or if you would like a free chapter from The Story Book on any aspect of story theory or publishing, do please drop me a line via www.baboulene.com and I will send it to you.

Thanks to Barbara for the opportunity to be part of this wonderful blog. I do hope to do it all again some time!

David Baboulene

www.TheScienceOfStory.blogspot.com

Daily prompt?

Lately I've been scheduling posts very late, like at 9 or 10pm (Italy time) which means full daylight for you guys on the other side of the ocean: the WordPress servers were jammed, and I usually had to finish my drafts in the morning, before the alarm clock set off. So I don't have posts in draft form anywhere, except when WordPress lets me down (but I love you anyway, guys! ). That's why I'm writing this in the afternoon, so I won't have to get up early tomorrow morning to finish scheduling this rambling post.

That's also why I'm sort of improvising, jumping from one topic to the other. My brain is a little fried for the overworking of the past week. I still haven't figured out a few things on GoodReads (why can't they see my Lulu shop? Only because I don't have ISBNs on the graphic novels? Tarun hasn't an ISBN either, but it's there…), and are still waiting for the final print cover (similar to the e-book one, but more square to fit the paperback) and printed copy.

I'm very excited, but also very exhausted – mentally, as I didn't move around much. I tried to go for a walk every morning anyway, it's good for my back, and Monday morning I really didn't want to go back to DayJob. It felt like a waste of time after trying The Writing Life for only a week!

So, trying to follow the daily prompts from last week:

How do you find your muse?

Good question. I think he/they are always with me. Then I have to sit down and write their stories, of course. I don't really have a ritual for that. When I was younger, I just started writing, and that was it – one-draft stories, some pretty awful, others not so bad. Then around the new millennium I started to ponder a little more before putting anything to paper. Even the graphic novels have a sort of script (BTW I found myself editing the last chapter of SKYBAND while I was drawing chapter 6 last weekend, because I had come up with a scene that was much better than what I had originally planned), although they're sort of one-draft stories.

So, how do I find them. Well, I have my virtual cast (hence I don't describe too much, and don't forget the eye/hair color of a character, once I have decided who s/he is), and they usually act in my head… Sometimes my vision becomes fuzzy, so I just close my eyes and tell the story to myself (usually before falling asleep – that's what I did with that SKYBAND scene), and then write it down. Am I making any sense here?

If I don't, it's because WE switched to Daylight Saving Time (or whatever it's called) THIS weekend… so I missed one hour of sleep on Sunday and apparently I haven't recovered yet! Sorry about that!

The Aftermath

Sooo… Indie Publishing week ended yesterday night with map-making, uploading trailer and working on cover. And no web page. I decided that this blog will be enough for now. I already post daily, a web-page would be a duplicate. So I readjusted the blog (in case you didn't notice) with all the details to be found:  book covers, book trailer, and maps – a link for the e-book that don't really support JPG.If I google my (pen) name, my Facebook page comes first, then GoodReads, then blog posts (random), but the link to this blog is on both Facebook and GoodReads anyway, so I shouldn't be too hard to find.

Lulu has sent the print copy (with temporary cover and map, but it will be only for me) and I'm waiting to see it, but April 1st I'll upload Air on Smashwords – and as it's a Friday, another Love-story with… post will be postponed (for a good reason). I'll probably upload it also on Kindle, I've done it with Jessamine and it's here, although very expensive! I put the same list price as Smashwords, so I don't know why they charge more. So if you have a Kindle, buy it on Smashwords anyway! I did the double upload, as since January from Smashwords it hadn't made it into Amazon, so I thought I'd accelerate the process…

I also asked my friend the map-maker for help in having the title coming out a little better, so here's the new cover:

And the brand new map – rivers in black mean they're borders, the others are not… And I cut the sea monster because he used a sheet too big for my scanner!

Aaaand… the book trailer!

Now I better go check the guidelines, as I've been welcome among the GoodReads authors… It's not over yet…

Happiness is…